Devastated by gunman

Published: 14 May, 2010

• OUR daughter was a patient for a long period at Highgate Mental Health Centre. While she was there, she came across Richard Hiorns, who was an assistant director of Islington Borough User Group (iBUG), which has an office in the hospital and is supposed to be there to assist patients.
She became quite friendly with him and even invited him to her flat. The devastation that she felt when this man was involved in a shoot-out with Islington police has set her back months and she is now very scared to develop new relationships. 
How could the mental health services and iBUG allow this man to get into this position?  How did he become authorised and validated by Islington Primary Care Trust (PCT) so that he had official sanction from it? He had a long criminal history and now seems even to have impersonated a police officer. What checks did the mental health trust and the user group make to ensure he was suitable to work with vulnerable people?
Our daughter will no doubt get over this and Mr Hiorns has been locked up for three years, but there is a need for wider concern. What inquiries have the authorities made into this incident and what steps are the local mental health trust and PCT taking to ensure this does not happen again? Surely those in hospital are entitled to some protection?
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED